The Stages of Fear In Oedipus
Rex
Dr. Green
Stages of Fear
• Confidence
• Fear
– Alarm
– Relief
– Panic
– Despair
Confidence
• Basis of confidence in
– Knowledge
• He thought he Knew who his parents were
• He thought he knew he had escaped the predictions of the
Delphi oracle
– Skills
• Had solved the riddle of the sphinx
– Resources
• Had the help of Creon and Apollo
– Power
• Was the ruler of Thebes
Aristotle On Fear
• Fear
– expectation that something destructive, i.e.,
something causing great pain, will happen to
person in the near future
Aquinas On Fear
• Fear is
– a painful feeling arising from
– a future evil
– that difficult
• irresistible--impossible or difficult to avoid
• surpasses the power of him that fears
• repelled only with difficulty
• greatness of the danger vs. weakness of the person
• certain contraction
– Physiologically
– Psychologically
Aquinas
• Two types of fear
– corruptive evil causes natural fear
• Fear for one’s existence
• Economic conditions are a significant source of fear
because one’s existence depends upon one’s livelihood
– painful evil causes learned fears
• arise as desires arise through experience
Alarm
• Alarm is a painful feeling caused when one
first becomes conscious of the possibility of
harm from imminent danger
– It is an awakening to danger
Alarm
• Knowledge
– He claims to be a stranger to the crime
– He vows to maintain the cause of the god and the
murdered man
– Pursue the matter as though he was my father
– Hypothesis formed
• Teiresias did it
• Others are plotting against him
Alarm
• Resources at his disposal
– Augury
• Skills
– “My mother wit, untaught of auguries, solved the
riddle of the Sphinx”
– He is good at solving riddles
• Power
– Will bring all the power of the state to the solution
of the problem
Alarm
• Teiresias sets off the alarm
– All are lacking in knowledge.
– He accuses Oedipus of murder and incest.
– He claims that Oedipus is ignorant of his lineage.
Alarm
• Alarm is further reinforced by Teiresias’ riddles
– The murderer is both native and alien
– Oedipus will had hisbirthday and go to his grave
– Oedipus can see but is blind
– Oedipus is rich and poor
– Oedipus is brother and father to his children
– Oedipus is son and husband to his wife
– Oedipus is assassin and replacement of father
Alarm
• The Chorus—set the stage for the Relief Stage
– Wonders whether the charges well founded.
– Neither the present nor the future is clear.
– Proved himself good as gold with Sphinx
Relief
• Alleviation, ease, or deliverance through the
removal of pain, distress, oppression, etc.
• A feeling of cheerfulness or optimism that
follows the removal of anxiety, pain, or
distress:
– “I breathed a sigh of relief .”
• Deliverance from or alleviation of anxiety,
pain, distress, etc
Relief in Episode 2
• Relief arises when a threat is gone
• Oedipus thought Creon was a threat to him
• Creon argues that the charges are baseless
–
–
–
–
A secure repose is preferred to ruling
He has never had any desire for throne
Oedipus should check by seeking a prophecy at Delphi
Oedipus should investigate to see if there is indeed
Teiresias is plotting against him
• Jocasta supports Creon's innocence
• The Chorus supports Creon's innocence
Panic
• Jocasta tells Oedipus about the Delphic predictions for
Laius
• Jocasta tells Oedipus that Laius was killed where three
roads meet
• Oedipus’s panic:
– What memories, what wild tumult of the soul
Came o'er me, lady, as I heard thee speak!
• Jocasta describes Laius, and the description matches the
man Oedipus killed
• Jocasta describes Laius’ retinue and mode of travel, and
these match the what was present when Oedipus killed a
man
Panic
• Oedipus demands that the surviving slave appear
before him
• What is at issue
– Oedipus’ parentage is in question
– The truthfulness of the Delphic oracle which said
Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother
– Oedipus killed someone in a cart similar to the one
described by Jocasta where the three roads meet
Panic
• The only ray of hope arises from the fact that
it is unclear whether there were many
robbers, as the survivor claimed, or only one.
Aquinas Hope
• Hope
– approach toward
– something good
– in the future
– arduous and difficult to obtain, so an element of
uncertainty
– possible to obtain
False Hope
• Messenger tells Oedipus that Polybus is dead
• Oedipus declares that the oracles are dead
• This turns out to be false hope because Polybus is
not his father
• Oedipus came to Corinth from a shepherd on
Mt Cithaeron
• The only hope now is that he is “base born.”
Despair
• Despair
– Consternation
– Dismay
– Hopelessness
– Fatalism
Aquinas Despair
• Despair
– is the opposite of hope
– Is the withdrawal from
– something good
– in the future
– that is impossible to obtain
Despair
• Oedipus learns that the child from the
shepherd’s field is son of Laius
• Oedipus is the child from the field
• All hope is gone
“I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed,
A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed!”
Despair
• Jocasta has withdrawn from life, finding it impossible to live with the
disgrace
• Oedipus has withdrawn from the world by blinding himself
– He will no longer see
• His daughters
• His city
• The statues of the gods
– He asks to be put to death
– Will be exiled from Thebes
• His daughters have been deprived of social existence and will die unwed
and barren. They have been deprived of the goods of living in society.